I Think The British Learn Their History

Well I Directed A Few Feature Length Things For Hbo In The Late Eighties.

I Happened Upon A Memoir By A Midlevel White House Staffer, And He Had Been In The Room That [nixon's Last] Night [in Office]. This Guy's Memoir Told Me What Nixon's Last Words Were. And They Were, On August 8, 1974, To The Crew: "have A Merry Christmas, Fellas!" That Was Just So Bizarre.

Sometimes, Songs Spill Out Of You Very Fast, And Sometimes You Have To Wrangle Them To The Floor. But The Same Thing Is True Of Comedy, Where Sometimes It Really Flows.

A Movie Script More Than Anything Else Is A Plan Of Action For The Crew. Everybody In The Crew Looks At The Script To See What They're Going To Do. It Has To Contain Where You Are, And How Many People Are There, And What They Do, And What Time Of Day It Is, And What Time Of Year It Is.

I Wasn't Playing Nixon's Satirical Stick Figure. I Was Playing Nixon The Man. As An Actor, I Felt I Had To Get To The Deeply Flawed Humanity Of The Guy.